80% of Outside CEOs Fail - Lesson Learned by Linden Lab?

Heard this very interesting data point on PRI Marketplace story yesterday (embedded above):

“Studies would say that 80 percent of CEOs who come from the outside, it ends up being a failure,” Kraemer says. “Because they don’t have the knowledge of the company, they don’t have the knowledge of the culture. Very, very difficult.”

Former Linden Lab CEOs Mark Kingdon and Rod Humble are very talented executives and they both brought some interesting, ambitious ideas to the company, but I think it's fair to say they both had difficulty working with the existing culture of Linden. Hearing about that 80% average failure rate does make me wonder why Linden Lab's board hasn't tried to appoint a longtime Linden executive as CEO, instead of an outside hire.

As for recently appointed CEO Ebbe Altberg?

I'd say the jury is still out on Ebbe, but my impression is he's helped boost morale and excitement in the company, especially with Project Sansar. I mean, just look at this T-shirt:

(The statement on the shirt was said by Ebbe during an all-hands company shortly after he became CEO.)

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Comments

[Amanda Dallin]

I have the impression that Ebbe has improved morale at linden lab. That said, corporate produced t-shirts are not indicative of morale in the company.

A company I worked at for 10 years went bankrupt recently (some years after I left). They produced lots of t-shirts and junk over the years designed to increase employee morale. Better working conditions and a combination of a predictable pay scale with reward for performance would have worked much better. They also had brought in a string of outside CEOs after years of promoting from within each of whom had different ideas and disrupted the company culture.

[Ciaran Laval]

Ebbe Altberg was a college room mate of someone influential at Linden Lab, so whereas he was an outsider in terms of the company, he's not an outsider in terms of those on the inside.

[Orca Flotta]

Do I sense a kinda sorta more or less stealthy job application there, Hammy?

[A.J.]

Ebbe has been wonderful, as long as the jury doesn't include actual customers who use the product and pay for the company to exist.

The guy knows how to throw a great company party and he's really moved the company forward into a place so advanced that real paying customers don't even exist there.

The jury is out because they're not allowed in.

[Estelle Pienaar]

I am wondering what A.J. stands for? You are ranting here all the time about Ebbe and you are pretending to speak for "all the customers". You are not talking for me, Dude. Don't talk on the account of other people. Just replace "customers" with "A.J." in your future comments. Because you are starting to get on the nerves of ALL READERS of the universe, or at least of this blog, or at least of this post. Or at least on mine...

[Joe]

I agree with A.J because he's correct and I would know since I'm pretty much Godlike around here regarding the truth.

nuff said

[LittleWing]

Ebbe has been great while being maybe the first CEO outside of Philip that has openly engaged the community with strong results.
Reopening the community portals with the firestorm team helping out shows he not only hears us but acts upon residents the best he can.

He is not just the head of linden lab but a resident of second life while proud to brag about being one while sharing the good happenings daily in our world.
Second Life has really been blessed having ebbe helping lead the way.

As for joe and other haters' trying to compare him to past mistakes by other people your all just jealous second life has turned around and will continue to do so..'it really upsets the open sim trolls they have less chances to convince people come to the backwards retarded brother reflection of a second life they dwell in. Misery loves company right joe!

[Indigo Mertel]

Well said, Estelle. I second all of what you said. A.J. does not represent all the customers, A.J. is a troll trolling about his own biases.

[A.J.]

I stand corrected and it's been a life altering event.

I guess, deep in my heart, I always wanted to be a cheerleader and didn't know it. It does feel better to pick up the pom poms and get the good dates.

So, from now on, everything is wonderful. Even though the team is losing, bleeding, and the stands are a little empty... we're not really here for the community or the team.

We're here to show off our acrobatics and to do a mean fire baton.

[Pamela]

Also, Ebbe's son was in SL (back when he was underage), so Ebbe did at least have some prior familiarity. And to me that shows. No other CEO has made himself as available int the forums as he has (tho he still nothing about the brokenness of forum software).

[Remark]

I wrote a long rant but I will make it short instead.

Ebbe = BAD BAD CEO

[Remark]

Why not make a survey Hamlet about the current CEO. I would be interested to see what the general opinion is about the current corporate leader.

[Warlen Greeves]

Ebbie is looting SL residents with higher tier prices to fund sansar which will be meh.

[Jumpman Lane]

I u no the golden age of Second Life is over. Ebbe is leveraging Second Life's "popularity" to promote Sansar as "the next best thing". I unno I'm jus' a Lane but I'm not sure the rank and file user of SL care about virtual reality at all. I unno if the people in the world who might be interested in virtual reality give a whit about SL or could duplicate the "success" of Second Life anyways. I mean if Linden Lab can't interest the mainstream in SL how could they in Sansar an empty "world" full a tech nerds.

[Orca Flotta]

I guess Ebbe is a good CEO for LL but bad news for SL. Project Sansar sounds totally not exciting for me, and mutterings by Ebbe himself make me even less curious about it. That's why I'm more than just a bit miffed he's using my premium fee to build Sansar. And believe you me, and no mistake: Project Sansar will not be anything like SL, it will be the new shiny technology but apart from that it's gonna be crappola!

When and if they approached it differently I might see Sansar in a more positive light. If they invited communities to test it out and weigh in their ideas, instead of pfff... builders, we might get something really nice. A real virtual world! But as it looks now, all we get will be a number of unconnected "experiences". All we get will be a VIRTUAL UNREALITY!!!